MINUTES of MEETING OF THE BERINSFIELD NEIGHBOURHOOD DEVELOPMENT PLAN AND ORDER(s) STEERING GROUP held on Monday 19th May, 2014in the School Hall, AbbeyWoodsAcademy, Berinsfield.
PRESENT :-Councillor Stuart Scott-Ely,Chairman of Berinsfield NDP Steering Group
Councillor Edwin CroftBerinsfield Parish Council
Councillor Ken HallBerinsfield Parish Council
Councillor Fred WorkmanBerinsfield Parish Council
Councillor Lee DunnBerinsfield Parish Council
Mrs. J. LoganCommunity Places Project Worker and Soha Resident Involvement Manager
Walter Allison
Ken Chrisp
Sheila Croft
Frank Denyer
David Eldridge
Jill Eldridge
George Farrant
Alison Jones
Kim Ingram
E. Lennon
Mr. C. Wilson
Debbie Pickworth
Keith Sargeant
Keith Simmonds
1.The Chairman, Councillor Stuart Scott-Ely welcomed everybody to the meeting and gave a brief resume of the progress of the Neighbourhood Development Plan and Order to date.
It was pointed out to the Chairman that there had not been enough publicity about the meeting and some residents had only found out by chance or via Facebook that the meeting was taking place. The Chairman apologised for this and confirmed that the meetings would be publicised more widely by posters being put up in the village as well as another advertisement in Your Village Voice, a notice on the Parish Council website, Facebook, and emails sent to people who have already registered their email address. Meetings will generally take place one week following a Parish Council meeting, although due to time constraints the June meeting will be held the day after the Parish Council meeting. The Chairman confirmed that there would be an information stand regarding the Neighbourhood Development plan at the village fete on 14th June.
2.Scoping Report. Councillor Scott-Ely informed the meeting that the Parish Council had approved the 12th May version of the Scoping Report for public consultation and that it would be uploaded on to the Parish Council website. Hard copies would be delivered to the Library, Information Centre, Sports Centre, Health Centre, AbbeyWoodsAcademy and other organisations in the village where the public could read the document. The document is designed to set out the background to the Neighbourhood Plan and comments are invited from the community before the 20th June after which point any changes will be made and the document will be formally adopted by the Parish Council as part of the NDP process. Comments were made about the amount of pages in the document and the question was asked as to whether the document could be condensed. Councillor Scott-Ely informed the meeting that this would not be possible as several members of the community had already helped compile the document and the Parish Council had now approved the document for public consultation.
It was agreed that a flyer would be prepared setting out some key bullet points andwould include a copy of the plan showingthe proposed sites around the village including those contained in the District Council’s Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment 2013 (SHLAA) The Berinsfield Information & Volunteer Centre would be asked if it could arrange to deliver a copy of the flyer to every home in the village when delivering the Village Voice.
3.Sites. Councillor Scott-Ely circulated large scale plans showing the sites submitted by landowners and those contained in the SHLAA document, for information. He explained that SODC’s 2013 SHLAA considered some sites which land owners may not wish to sell the sites or developers may not wish to purchase. At this stage, all sitesshown had been put forward as potential sites and the village should consider which and how many sites should be allocated for development over the next 16 years. It had been agreed that no development should take place on the areas shaded green on the plans, which mainly consisted of the recreation grounds and other areas of open space within the village. Some land owners may not wish to put their land/property forward for possible development. Berinsfield is located within the Oxford Green Belt and the District Council’s Core Strategy 2012 identifies that there should be a Green Belt review in order that land can be taken out of the Green Belt for future development.
Councillor Scott-Ely urged those present to think about what type of housing might be required in Berinsfield as well as local employment, recreation, etc in order that this information can be included in the Neighbourhood Development Plan / Order. Once Berinsfieldhas successfully produced its Neighbourhood Development Plan and Order(s) and the document(s) are approved following referendum early next year, it should ensure that Berinsfield residents will have greater control over what happens in the village over the life of the Local Plan 2031. If no NDPis produced and approved following referendum, South Oxfordshire District Council will dictate what happens in the village.
The plans circulated at the meeting also showed areas in the village which SODC believes could be subject to flooding. Residents had commented that the identified flood zones 2 & 3 were not accurate in terms of flood risk especially following the wettest winter on record. Stuart Scott-Ely proposed that it might be prudent to use some of the funds held by South Oxfordshire District Council for the preparation of the Neighbourhood Development Plan to engage an independent expert to assess the true flood risk to Berinsfield.
Questionnaire. Stuart Scott-Ely read out the questions contained in the draft questionnaire and asked if additional questions should be included. It was proposed that Oxfordshire Rural Community Council should be engaged to carry out the survey and to analyse the results. The steering group would look into this before the next meeting.
Councillor Hall asked if there should be a question about roads in the village. Stuart Scott-Ely pointed out that infrastructure would usually be provided with developer contributions butuntil specific sites had been agreed by the village it would be difficult to gauge what might be provided with the funds. One of the attendees pointed out that the developer contributions have to be added to the price of the new properties and therefore increase the price of the properties for the eventual purchasers.
A resident asked if people from Berinsfield who wished to remain in the village could be assured that they would take priority when it came to allocating houses. It was also stated that many people who wished to live in Berinsfield would not be able to afford to purchase a property. Stuart Scott-Ely pointed out that the Neighbourhood Development Plan and Order(s) would generally cover the policies regarding development and would not be able to control who developers could sell properties to. He did recall that Woodcote’s NDP had made some provision for local residents to be given priority rather than allowing new developments to be sold “off plan”. The percentage of affordable housing as well as housing density was something the residents would be consulted upon as part of the questionnaire being developed.
The existing and proposed employment sites andindustrial units were discussed. The strong feeling at the meeting was that local jobs should be protected and wherever possible new local employment opportunities created. The consensus was that industrial units should be located on the site currently used for the car boot sales at the junction of the A415 and A4047 (BER1 on the 2013 SHLAA). The NDP steering group should consult local employers on their views/needs over the next 16 years to ensure that local economic growth is provided for alongside new homes.
4.Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). SODC had recently asked the Parish Council to complete a screening opinion questionnaire to determine whether Berinsfield NDP needed to include an SEA. The NDP Steering Group was asked to return the completed questionnaire to SODC and to update the village of the need or otherwise at the next meeting.
5.School Fete. It was noted that Abbey Woods Academy School Fete would be held on Saturday 12th July at the school.
6.Date of next public meeting. 10th June 2014 at7p.m. in the Hall at AbbeyWoodsAcademy.Or visit the Berinsfield Neighbourhood Development Plan marquee at the village fete on Saturday 14th June.
It had previously been suggested that meetings of the NDP Steering Group should be held monthly on the Monday following a Parish Council meeting (normally the second Monday in the month), but in some circumstances this may have to be changed.